Life-saving apparatus.



E. M. LAWRENCE.

LIFE SAVING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 25, 1910.

' Patented June 20, 1911.

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UNTD STATES PATEN OFFICE.

ERNEST M. LAWRENCE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO COSTON SIGNALCOMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 20, 1911.

Application filed September 28, 1910. Serial No. 584,272.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST M. LAWRENCE, of New York, county of New York,and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement inLife-Saving Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to life-saving apparatus, and resides principallyin a bridle or device for connecting the line with the projectile, andwhereby any sudden strain produced on said line at the moment of firingis reduced to a minimum to prevent its being broken.

In practice, the bridle-device is, preferably, formed of wire,wire-rope, or other appropriate material, to give it the requiredstrength and to prevent its burning or charring when the gun is fired.At one or both of its ends, the bridle is formed with a plurality ofinterlaced loops formed of the wire and arranged to co-act one with theother, whereby, when any strain is imposed on the line (as by the samebecoming stretched after the firing of the gun), said loops will tend toclose and interlink with each other and constitute a shock and strainabsorbing structure between the projectile and line. As the material ofwhich the bridle is formed is more or less stiff, a certain degree ofresilience is permitted, and this characteristic tends to allow somemovement of the parts but in such manner that no sudden strain can beimposed on the bridle, nor upon any of its parts, so that danger ofbreaking of the line and the attached parts is practically preventecHeretofore, where the line or element has been connected directly to theprojectile and has not been provided with means for affording a certaindegree of play or resilience, said line or element would break whensuddenly drawn taut. Moreover, when the part of the line or elementwhich extended into the gun was of combustible material, it frequentlywould be burned or charred at the moment of firing the gun. By thedevice of this invention, both of these dangers are avoided.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a view in perspectiveillustrating my in vention as it appears before the gun is fired; Fig. 2is an enlarged detail view of the bridle, the loops thereof appearing asopen; Fig. 3 is a similar view, the loops in this instance appearing inthe form they assume immediately after the gun is fired and after thewire has been drawn taut by the projectile as it leaves the gun andpulls the line forward with it.

In these drawings, the numeral 1 designates a suitably trunnioned gun orcannon, such as those in use at life-saving stations. For convenience, Ihave herein illustrated my invention as being employed with thewell-known form of Lyle gun. It is fired in the customary manner, and isadapted to fire a projectile 2 of any preferred form. Attached to theprojectile is a stem 2 provided with an eye 2. Connecting with this eyeis my improved device or bridle 3, and to this is attached a line 4 ofusual form and length adapted to be fed out of a box, casing, or housing5, as shown.

The bridle 8 is preferably of wire or other suitable material having, asa characteristic feature, a certain degree of stiffness, whereby, whenstretched, it will afford some resilience to absorb the shock and strainimposed on the line when the projectile leaves the gun and begins todraw the line taut. By making the bridle of wire or other suitablenoncombustible or noninfiammable material, the likelihood of its beingburned or charred by the flash of the powder when the gun is fired, isobviated, and the line will, in consequence, be protected.

As shown, the bridle comprises a bodyportion 6 of any desired length,and a plurality of loops or portions 7 at one or both of its ends. Theseloops are formed by intertwiningthe wire so that there are formedprimary loops 7 and secondary loops 7, these several loops beinginterlaced and interlinked so that they co-act one with another to openor close the loops, as the case may be. One of the primary loops at oneend is suitably connected with the eye 2 and the secondary loops and theother primary loop will be between said first-mentioned primary loop andthe body-portion of the bridle. One of the primary loops at the oppositeend of the bridle affords a convenient means for attachment thereto ofthe line.

The loops may be formed in any desirable way: Preferably, I intertwinethe wire in such manner that the two primary loops are produced atopposite sides of the two side or secondary loops. The end of the wireor rope may be then extended alongside of a portion of the body-portionand be secured thereto in any suitable manner. It will be seen that,where the bridle is formed of looped Wire or wire-rope, a strong andstrain-reducing medium is interposed between the projectile and the lineand Whereby the tension and sudden strain on the line, at the moment offiring, is greatly reduced, and danger of the line burning or breakingis obviated.

While I have herein described my invention in detail, it is neverthelessto be understood that I do not limit myself to such de tails except inso far as they may be specified in the claims.

Having now particularly described and as certained the nature of myinvention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A bridle for life-saving guns and the like, comprising an elongatedfire-proof body-portion and endportions comprising a plurality ofelastic side-loops and endloops at opposite sides of saidfirst-mentioned loops and interlaced therewith.

2. A bridle for life-saving guns and the like, comprising an elongatedfire-proof body-portion and end-portions formed of yielding primaryloops and secondary loops, said secondary loops normally occupying aposition intermediate of said primary loops and interlinked therewithand with each other.

3. As an article of manufacture, a bridle for life-saving guns, and thelike, including a body-portion and a plurality of elastic interlacedloops normally expanded and intel-acting with each other to contractsaid loops upon one another.

4. As an article of manufacture, a bridle for life-saving guns, and thelike, c0mprising a metallic bodyportion and a plurality of metallicinterlaced yielding loops at each end of said body-portion, normallyopen and adapted to interact with each other to draw them toward closingposition.

5. The combination with a line-carrying projectile, of a lineconnectingdevice comprising a body-portion having at its ends a plurality oflooped port-ions yieldingly intercrossing each other and co-acting todraw them taut.

In testimony whereof I hereunto'set my hand this 24th day of September,1910, in the presence of two attesting witnesses.

' ERNEST M. LAWRENCE.

l/Vitnesses P. J. FEARON, J I-I. BUCHEREE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

said loops being

